HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Nov. 7, 2013) - The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) ranked fifth nationally in federally financed aeronautical/astronautical engineering research and second in Alabama in federally funded research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) fiscal year 2011 data, which are the most recent available.

Only Johns Hopkins University, Utah State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Colorado-Boulder were listed ahead of UAH in the national aeronautical/astronautical engineering research expenditure ranking. Following UAH were MIT, the University of Maryland and Texas A&M.

"The National Science Foundation research expenditure rankings clearly show the strengths of UAH in science and engineering disciplines," said UAH Vice President for Research Ray Vaughn. "This is a also a sign of a very healthy research program and a hard-working research faculty. I am continually amazed at the high level of research performance of a small university like UAH and very proud of our accomplishments."

Also nationally, the NSF ranked UAH 19th in Department of Defense R&D expenditures, in a peer group that includes Utah State University (#17), the University of Hawaii (#18), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (#20), UCLA (#21) and the University of Pittsburgh (#22).

UAH was 14th nationally in NASA R&D expenditures. UAH peers include Stanford (#13), Columbia (#15), Arizona State University (#16-tied) and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (#16-tied).

UAH ranked 14th in federally financed computer sciences research expenditures. Its peers include the University of Hawaii (#13), Stanford (#15), the University of California San Diego (#16) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (#17).

In federally financed astronomy research expenditures, UAH ranked 16th nationally. Peers include Penn State University (#14), the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (#15), the University of Texas-Austin (#17), the University of California-Santa Cruz (#18) and George Mason University (#19).

UAH was 19th nationally in federally funded atmospheric sciences research, in the company of Georgia Tech (#16), Boston College (#17), the University of Central Florida (#18) and Princeton (#20).

In Alabama, UAH's $75 million in federally financed R&D expenditures is second only to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which reported $504 million.

UAH ranked first among Alabama universities in expenditures in the environmental sciences, including atmospheric science; math and computer sciences; and physical sciences.